Sand ramming equipment station for flasks



y 15, 1934- c. D. BARR ET AL SAND RAMMING EQUIPMENT STATION FOR FLASKS Filed Jan. 5, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet l y 15, 1934- c. D. BARR in AL 59,227

SAND RAMMING EQUIPMENT STATION FOR FLASKS Filed Jan. 5, 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TORS' A TTORNEYS.

May 15, 1934. c. D. BARR El AL SAND RAMMING EQUIPMENT STATION FOR FLASKS Filed Jan. 5, 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented May 15, 1934- SAND RAMMING EQUIPMENT s rA'rIoN Fort FLAsKs Glarerice D; Barr and Stephen D. Moxley, Birmingham, Ala, assignors to Sand Spun Patents- Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application January 5,

8' Claims.

My present invention relates generally to the art of centrifugally casting hollow metal bodies, such as cast iron pipe in refractory or sand-lined molds or flasks, and wherein a freshly prepared mold or flask is employed for each cast.

More specifically the invention of the present application has to do With the equipment employed in handling and preparing the molds or flasks for the casting operation.

In the manufacture of pipes of large diameters, as for instance 18" and larger, new problems are encountered due largely to the fact that the flasks are heavy and cumbersome to handle While they are undergoing the preparation stages, that is to say, While they are being lined with sand and the inner face coated with blacking or other suitable wash, and one of the objects of the present invention is to eliminate or reduce the said problems and thus greatly facilitate the handling and preparation of the flasks.

Another object of the invention is to provide an entirely new and improved ramming station equipment having novel means thereat for supporting and handling the flasks while they are undergoing the preparation stages, said means including mechanism for properly centering the flask and the pattern during the sand ramming operation.

The invention has in view other more or less important objects all of which will be made clear in the following specification and accompanying drawings, wherein- Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a so-called ramming station showing my improved equipment.

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of a pipe flask and pattern in centered position therein and upon a supporting stool and showing the sand rammers in the position they occupy during the ramming operation.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the ramming station with the flask and pattern in section, the View also showing the flask supporting stools located in a pit below the main floor of the plant.

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of a group of flasksupporting stools and flask-handling cranes for transporting the flasks from one stool to another.

Fig. 5 is a detail View of one of the jib cranes.

Fig. 6 is a top plan view of the ramming stool showing the flask holders in flask engaging position, and

Fig. 7 is a side elevation of the parts shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a detailed sectional view of a portion of the lower end of the flask showing the 1932, S'eriaf No. 584,873

removable wedges for holding the stop-off ring in place.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood it may be explained that in the first commercial installation thereof the centrifugal casting machines (not shown) are located on the main floor of the plant at a point removed from ramming station. The prepared flasks are transported by an overhead crane as usual, from the ramming station to the casting machines and after the cast has been made therein the flasks are transported to what has been termed in the art as the shake-out station where the casting and the sand lining are removed and the flask cleaned. The cleaned flasks are then transported to the ramming station herein illustrated and described from which they again go to the casting machines and the cycle of operations is thereafter repeated.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated a part of the equipment is located in a pit or sub-chamber A, below the main operating floor B, and a part is located at or above the main floor.

In casting hollow metal bodies, such as cast iron pipe centrifugally, a separate sand-lined flask is employed for each cast. The sand lining is first rammed into the flask around the previously inserted pattern and after the pattern has been withdrawn a suitable facing wash or socalled blacking is applied to the inner face of the sand lining. The lining is then further treated or cured as by drying or partial drying, and the prepared flask is then transported to the casting machine where the cast is made.

As the flasks for making large size pipes are relatively heavy and cumbersome to handle, it will be apparent that such handling must be done by machinery if the operation is to be carried out economically. It has been the practice heretofore to handle the flasks by the overhead traveling crane with which such plants are usually equipped, but in a plant of any real size the overhead crane is kept busy in transporting the flasks to and from the casting machines which are generally located some little distance from the ramming station and in performing other necessary work, and to employ said crane at the ramming station, also to move the flasks to and from ramming position, would materially slow up the operation of the plant, it being understood that each flask is used over and over again in a days run, each traveling through a predetermined cycle.

The equipment of our invention greatly relieves the work of the regular overhead crane,

speeds up the whole flask preparing and casting operations and thus materially increases the output or production of the plant and lowers the cost 5 of manufacture.

Referring to the drawings, the reference numeral indicates the base casting of the ramming stool, which is seated upon a heavy foundation at the floor of the pit or sub-chamber A.

10 Mounted upon the stool is a rotatable plate 12, carrying a combined head pattern and centering device 13, which is removably secured to the plate in any suitable manner. The plate is also removably attached by bolts 14, to the rotatable member 15, of the stool, and is provided with upstanding flask centering shoes 16, between which the lower end of the flask 17, may be seated and firmly held in an upright position. The rotatable member 15, of the stool is mounted upon ball or roller bearings 18, and is driven by a mo tor 19, through shaft 20, and bevel gearing 21 and 22, all as more clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The pattern 23, may be of the usual construc- 4 tion, although we prefer to employ one having a 25 pattern starter associated therewith as illustrated in Fig. 2, and which will be presently described. The pattern has a conical portion 24, at its lower end which cooperates with a correspondinglyshaped seat formed. in the upper portion of the head member 13, in order to insure accurate centering of the parts, and at its upper end the pattern carries a head 24 provided with an outer conical wall, said head being rotatably mounted upon a stem 25, having an opening 26,

l with which a lifting cable may be attached.

The annular space between the inner face of the flask and the outer head of the head-pattern is closed by means of a removably supported ring :13, which may be held in place by any suitable 40 means, such as removable wedges 14' Fig. 8. This ring constitutes a wall against which the sand lining 13" is rammed.

The pattern lifting and lowering mechanism p 3 may be of any approved type. In the present in stance we have shown it as consisting of cables 2'7, passing over suitably arranged sheaves and connected to a hoisting mechanism designated generally by the reference numeral 28, by means 0f which the pattern may be raised and lowered into and out of the flask and held in its raised position to. permit of the flasks being placed upon and removed from the ramming stool.

The upper end of the flask and its associated pattern are centered and supported against lateral movement by a bodily movable centering ring 29, carrying flask-engaging rollers 30, which bear against flanges 31, projecting from the upper end of the flask, but which permit the flask to rotate freely upon said rollers. The centering ring 29, also carries an outwardly flaring and upwardly extending hopper wall 32, which with the co-operating inwardly inclined wall of cap 33, form an annular hopper to direct the sand into the flask during the ramming operation. The in- 5 ner tapered wall of the cap 331 is adapted to removably engage the correspondingly tapered Wall of the head 24 at the upper end of the pattern 23 to accurately center the same within the flask, all as more clearly shown in Fig. 2. The two walls of the hopper are joined and braced by means of radial Webs 34. as more clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 4. The webs are spaced apart a sufficient distance to permit the stems of the ramming tools 35, to be inserted into and removed from the annular space between the pattern and the flask.

The ramming tools are of the pneumatic hammer type each stem having a shoe 36. at its lower end, and each tool is suspended from a cable 37, trained over idlers 38, and has a counter-weight 39, at its other end. The counter-weight is made up of independent weights which may be added or removed as desired in order to properly counterbalance the tools depending upon the desired density characteristics of the sand lining.

The sand for the lining is delivered into the annular hopper through a chute 41, which receives its sand from a sand bin 40, having a revolving bottom 42, mounted upon a vertical shaft 43. The sand is delivered into the sand bin 40, by a chute 44, to which sand is fed by means of a bucket elevator 45, which receives its supply from a hopper 46, into which the sand is delivered by an endless conveyor 47, all as more clearly shown in Fig. 3.

In order to facilitate the handling of the flasks, speed up the operation and relieve the main overhead crane of the plant from the extra work, we provide a pair of elevated jib cranes at each ramming station, and we also prefer to provide one or more flask-supporting stools in addition to the ramming stool, so that while one flask is being rammed another flask may be brought into position in association with one of the jib cranes to be lifted and swung into ramming position as soon as the flask on the ramming stool has been rammed, and the rammed flask lifted and swung onto the other adjacent stool. We shall refer to these additional stools as the supporting stool and the blacking stool.

As will be seen by referring to Figs. 1, 3, 4 and 5, the supporting stool 48, and the blacking stool 49, are also located at the floor of the pit or sub-chamber A, and positioned adjacent to and preferably forward of the ramming stool 10, so that the flasks may be readily shifted from one stool to the other. To accomplish this, one jib crane 50, is located above the supporting stool 48, and another jib crane 51, is located above the blacking stool 49. The jib crane 50, is mounted upon a vertically moving plunger 52, which has its piston located for movement in a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder 53. The upright member 54, of the crane 50, is guided in its movements by a T-shaped shoe 55, movable in a vertical guide channel 56, and the crane is provided with a laterally swinging horizontal beam 57, which is journaled for swinging movement on the cylindrical portion 58, of the plunger 52. A carriage 59, is mounted to travel back and forth on the beam 5'7, said carriage having eye-members 60, flexibly suspended therefrom which are adapted to receive laterally projecting headed studs 61, secured to the upper end of each flask 17, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. It will be obvious from this arrangement that a flask 17, supported upon the stool 48, may be lifted bodily by the upward movement of the jib-crane 50, and then swung over and deposited between the centering lugs 16, of the rotatable member 15, of the ramming stool.

The jib crane 51, is constructed like the crane 50, except that its beam 62, is longer and carries two traveling carriages 63, and 64, the carriage 63 having flexibly suspended flask-engaging eye members 65, similar to the eye-members 60, and the carriage 64, having a flexible connection with the flask centering and sand feeding hopper cap wall 33. By this arrangement it will be obvious that after a flask has been rammed the sand 150 feeding hopper and centering ring may be lifted bodily therefrom and moved out of the way temporarily, and the rammed flask may then be lifted and swung bodily over and deposited upon the blacking stool 49, in position to receive the wash or facing which is dumped from a bucket into the upper end thereof, all as well understood by those skilled in the art. The jib crane 51 is journaied for swinging movement upon a plunger 52, the lower end oi which is mounted for vertical movement in a pneumatic or by hydraulic cylinder 53. a

After a flask has been ramrned the pattern must be pulled therefrom. This is accomplished by the cables 2'"! and Windlass mechanism Obviously the flask must be held on its stool during the pattern pulling operation. To accomplish this we provide a pair of oppositely-arranged and laterally movable flask-engaging and holding shoes 66, which are mounted to engage over the upper edge of an outwardly extending annular ring 67, forming a part of the flask, as more clearly shown in Fig. '7. Each shoe 66, is carried by a longitudinally movable beam 68, mounted i shown) located at any convenient point and pref erably at the same point where the valves for the jib crane cylinders 53 and 53 are located. We prefer to provide each holding shoe 66, with an inclined flask engaging face 73, so that the shoes will more firmly press the flask down upon its stool and securely hold it during the pattern pulling operation.

In order to assist in pulling the pattern we may provide additional means for first starting the pattern. In Fig. 2 we have shown one form of such a means associated with and forming a part of the pattern. In said figure we have shown the lower end of the pattern in the form of a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder in which a piston or plunger head '74, is mounted, and with which the pattern has movement relative to the internal fixed head 75. The plunger has a depending stem 76, which normally rests upon an abutment 77,

carried by the head core below the seat 24, when the pattern is in position within the flask. Actuating fluid from any suitable source may be caused to enter space between the fixed head and piston i l, through a pipe 73, and passage l9, formed in the lifting stem 25, of the pattern,

- and as the piston cannot move downward the full force of the fluid will act upon the head '75 to lift or start the pattern moving upward sufliciently to break the union or bond between it and packed sand around it, and thus make it easier for the Windlass or hoisting mechanism 28, to

thereafter completely withdraw the pattern after the sand lining has been rammed into place.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention,

we have shown a ramming station having equipment for only a single ramming unit, whereas in suffice for all.

While we have shown and described a preferred embodiment of our invention, we do not wish to be understood as limiting ourselves to the exact mechanism. illustrated, as it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that some of the mechanisms may be altered or omitted without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What we claim is:

l. A ramming station equipment including a rotatable stool having means for centering and supporting a flask and its pattern in an upright position and a combined sand-receiving hopper and pattern centering ring removably associated with the upper end of the flask, and adapted to be lowered thereon, said ring carrying rollers for engagement with the outer wall or the flask at its upper end.

2. A ramming station equipment including a rotatable stool having means for centering and supporting a flask and its pattern in an upright position, means for centering a pattern within the flask, a pattern-pulling mechanism, and means movable toward and from the outer wall of the flask for engaging and holding the flask against upward movement during the patternpulling operation.

3. A ramming station equipment including a rotatable stool having means for centering and supporting a flask and its pattern in an upright position, a pattern and pattern-centering device carried by the stool, means for pulling the pattern, and opposed laterally moving flask-holding shoes adapted to engage the outer wall of the flask and hold it against upward movement during the pattern-pulling operation.

4. A sand-ramming station equipment for the purpose described, including in combination, a rotatable stool having a top-plate provided with means for centering and supporting a flask and its pattern in an upright position, a second flasksupporting stool having a flat top plate located adjacent the first-named stool, a vertically extending column adjacent said stools, a laterally swinging jib-crane having a vertical member and a horizontal arm mounted upon said column at a point above and out of line with said stools for vertical and laterally swinging movements, fluid actuated means associated with an end of the vertical member of the jib-crane for bodily raising and lowering the same, the arrangement being such that the horizontal arm of the jib-crane may swing in a radius between and over said stools, a carriage mounted for travelling movement upon the horizontal arm of the jib-crane, and means depending from said carriage for engaging and detachably supporting a flask, whereby such flask may be lifted bodily from off one stool and transported by the jib-crane to and lowered upon the other stool.

5. A. sand-ramming station equipment for the purpose described, including in combination, a rotatable stool having a top plate provided with means for centering and supporting a flask and its pattern in an upright position, two other flask-supporting stools each located adjacent the first-named stool, and each having a flat topplate, a vertically extending column located at each side of and in substantial alinement with the rotatable flask-supporting stool, a jib-crane having an upright member and a horizontal arm mounted for vertical and laterally swinging movements upon each of said columns, said jib-cranes being located above and out of line with said two other stools and the horizontal arm of each of which may swing in a radius between and over said rotatable flask-supporting stool and one of the two other stools, a carriage mounted for traveling movement upon the horizontal arm of each jib-crane, means depending from each carriage for engaging and detachably supporting a flask, and fluid actuated means associated with an end of the upright member of each jib-crane for bodily raising and lowering the same.

6. A sand-ramming station equipment for the purpose described, including in combination, a rotatable stool having a top-plate provided with means for centering and supporting a flask and its pattern in an upright position, a second flasksupporting stool having a top-plate located adjacent the first-named stool, a vertically extending column adjacent said stools, a power cylinder and piston supported upon said column, a guideway carried by said column for guiding the piston, a jib-crane mounted for lateral swinging movements upon said piston, said jib-crane having a horizontal arm movable in a radius between and over said stools, a carriage mounted for traveling movement upon the horizontal arm of the jib-crane, and means depending from said carriage for engaging and detachably supporting a flask for movement from one stool to the other.

'7. Sand-ramming equipment including a bodily movable sand-feeding hopper and pattern cert tering structure adapted to be removably supported upon the upper end of an upright flask, said combined structure comprising an inner annular member adapted to fit over the upper end of a pattern located in a flask, and an outer outwardly flaring annular hopper member connected with the inner member and having depending means including a plurality of spaced rollers adapted to engage the outer wall of a flask adjacent its upper end whereby the pattern may be accurately centered within the flask.

8. A sand-ramming station equipment for the purpose described, including in combination, a flask-supporting stool, having a top-plate provided with means for supporting and centering a flask in an upright position with a pattern therein, means for pulling the pattern to remove it from the flask, and opposed flask-holding jaws each constructed to engage over an annular ring on a flask to hold the latter against upright movement during the pattern-pulling operation, and means for moving said jaws toward and from a flask supported upon the stool.

CLARENCE D. BARR. STEPHEN D. MOEG'JEY. 

